2026 S. Balachandar: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering	71	352	321	159	135	500	21497

Research.com Recognitions

2006 - Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) Citation For fundamental contributions to the understanding of thermal convection in the earths mantle, the structure of bluff body wakes and their effect on the dynamics of small particles, the dynamics of vortices in wall turbulence, and theory of twophase flow, including the equilibrium Euler formulation for disperse flow

Overview

S. Balachandar is affiliated with the University of Florida in the United States. Their primary field of study is engineering, with significant contributions spanning several specialized subfields.

The main areas of research include:

Computational Mechanics
Ocean Engineering
Aerospace Engineering
Earth-Surface Processes
Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine

Balachandar's work touches on diverse topics such as:

Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows
Granular flow and fluidized beds
Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows
Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
Infection Control and Ventilation
Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Studies
Aeolian processes and effects

The scientist has published numerous papers in frequent venues, including:

Physics of Fluids
Physical Review Fluids
International Journal of Multiphase Flow
arXiv (Cornell University)
Journal of Fluid Mechanics

Selected recent papers authored or coauthored by Balachandar are:

"Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities: A journey through scales," 2021, Physica D Nonlinear Phenomena
"Host-to-host airborne transmission as a multiphase flow problem for science-based social distance guidelines," 2020, International Journal of Multiphase Flow
"Peering inside a cough or sneeze to explain enhanced airborne transmission under dry weather," 2021, Scientific Reports
"Investigation of theoretical scaling laws using large eddy simulations for airborne spreading of viral contagion from sneezing and coughing," 2021, Physics of Fluids
"A numerical study of particle jetting in a dense particle bed driven by an air-blast," 2020, Physics of Fluids

Frequent coauthors who have collaborated with Balachandar include:

Nadim Zgheib
Jorge Salinas
Mariano I. Cantero
Alfredo Soldati
Kai Liu

Balachandar has contributed to academic literature also through book publications. One example is the book titled Fundamentals of Dispersed Multiphase Flows, published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.

Recognition for Balachandar's work includes the status of Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) awarded in 2006. The citation for this fellowship mentions fundamental contributions to the understanding of thermal convection in the earth's mantle, bluff body wake dynamics influencing small particles, vortices in wall turbulence, and the theory of two-phase flow, including the equilibrium Euler formulation for dispersed flow.

Best Publications

Mechanisms for generating coherent packets of hairpin vortices in channel flow

J. Zhou;R. J. Adrian;S. Balachandar;T. M. Kendall

2745
Citations
Turbulent Dispersed Multiphase Flow

S. Balachandar;John K. Eaton

1991
Citations
On the relationships between local vortex identification schemes

Pinaki Chakraborty;S. Balachandar;Ronald J. Adrian

1104
Citations
THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLOQUET INSTABILITY OF THE WAKE OF SQUARE CYLINDER

J. Robichaux;S. Balachandar;S. P. Vanka

455
Citations
Chaotic advection in a Stokes flow

H. Aref;S. Balachandar

393
Citations
Effect of three‐dimensionality on the lift and drag of nominally two‐dimensional cylinders

R. Mittal;S. Balachandar

365
Citations
A fast Eulerian method for disperse two-phase flow

Jim Ferry;S. Balachandar

349
Citations
Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities: A journey through scales

Ye Zhou;Robin J.R. Williams;Praveen Ramaprabhu;Michael Groom

318
Citations
Wall-induced forces on a rigid sphere at finite Reynolds number

Lanying Zeng;S. Balachandar;Paul Fischer

317
Citations
On the front velocity of gravity currents

Mariano I. Cantero;J. R. Lee;S. Balachandar;S. Balachandar;Marcelo H. Garcia

299
Citations
Effect of turbulence on the drag and lift of a particle

Prosenjit Bagchi;S. Balachandar

285
Citations
Forces on a finite-sized particle located close to a wall in a linear shear flow

Lanying Zeng;Fady Najjar;S. Balachandar;Paul Fischer

267
Citations
Three-dimensional instabilities of mantle convection with multiple phase transitions.

S. Honda;D. A. Yuen;S. Balachandar;D. Reuteler

262
Citations
Effect of free rotation on the motion of a solid sphere in linear shear flow at moderate Re

P. Bagchi;S. Balachandar

252
Citations
Methods for evaluating fluid velocities in spectral simulations of turbulence

S. Balachandar;M. R. Maxey

242
Citations
A scaling analysis for point–particle approaches to turbulent multiphase flows

S. Balachandar

242
Citations
Autogeneration of near-wall vortical structures in channel flow

Jigen Zhou;Ronald J. Adrian;S. Balachandar

236
Citations
Direct Numerical Simulation of Flow Past Elliptic Cylinders

R. Mittal;S. Balachandar

206
Citations
Host-to-Host Airborne Transmission As a Multiphase Flow Problem For Science-Based Social Distance Guidelines

S. Balachandar;S. Zaleski;S. Zaleski;S. Zaleski;A. Soldati;A. Soldati;G. Ahmadi

198
Citations
Low-frequency unsteadiness in the wake of a normal flat plate

Fady M. Najjar;S. Balachandar

182
Citations
Heat transfer enhancement mechanisms in inline and staggered parallel-plate fin heat exchangers

L.W. Zhang;S. Balachandar;D.K. Tafti;F.M. Najjar

172
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Ronald J. Adrian Arizona State University

Fady Najjar Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Man Yeong Ha Pusan National University

Tian-Jian Hsu University of Delaware

Marcelo H. Garcia University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hyun Sik Yoon Pusan National University

Raphael T. Haftka University of Florida

Gary Parker University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Paul Fischer University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thomas N. Jackson Pennsylvania State University

External Links

Personal website of S. Balachandar Google Scholar page

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